Length of essays

UR2010Forever
Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:12:20 +0000

For the extracurricular essay, it says 150 words or fewer, not 150 or more, so you should really try to stick to that, maybe go up to 200 words. Take out the stuff about the competitions you’ve entered and won, since you can put that under a different section, and this essay is for you to tell them something new. Cut it down to the most important parts.

As for the long essay, 1784 is way too long! You definitely need to cut it down to at least a third of that, maybe more. 500-600 words MAX. Again, cut it down to the bare bones. If you make it too long, your message will get lost. If you’re really having issues, start by taking out uneccessary adjectives and adverbs and go from there. Try to be as concise as possible. Get someone else to read it, like a counselor or teacher who can help you take out the extraneous information.

In general, try to stick to the guidelines! Admissions officers have a million of these to read, and the more concise and to the point you are, the more they’ll appreciate it.